The 92-year old County Clare man accused of indecently assaulting two young orphan girls in his care more than half a century ago paid out €70,000 two years ago to settle civil claims brought by the two complainants, a jury heard today.
At Ennis Circuit Court today, one of the two complainants – now aged 61 and aged 7 and 8 at the time of the alleged indecent assaults in the mid 1970s – told the jury that the accused paid out €70,000 arising from the sex abuse allegations in November 2024.
The woman told the court that she received €30,000, her older sister received €30,000 and their Dublin based solicitor, Pearse Mehigan received €10,000 in legal costs from the €70,000 settlement.
The woman said that she approached Mr Mehigan in 2024 following advice from the One in Four charity and told the solicitor that she had been sexually abused by the accused and Mr Mehigan then corresponded with the Co Clare man.
Counsel for the accused, Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett) told the complainant that his client denies the charges before the court.
The man denies eight counts of indecently assaulting two girls on dates from July 1st 1973 to January 31st 1975 with two counts related to the younger sister and six concerning the older sister.
The accused man recently turned 92, is disabled and sits in his mobility scooter in court and at the time of the alleged offences, he was aged between 39 and 40.
Mr Whyms pointed to a letter from Mr Mehigan confirming receipt of the €70,000 where he went on to say that it is accepted that the amount received is in full and final settlement of all aspects of their respective claims.
Mr Whyms said that the letter further notes that the settlement arrived at between the parties is without any admission of liability on the part of his client.
The woman said that she made a formal complaint to Det Garda Conor Flaherty concerning the alleged sexual abuse on February 12th 2024 two days before she spoke to Mr Mehigan.
Asked why she waited until 2024 to make a complaint, the woman said that the accused’s wife passed away in late 2023 “and my sister and I always had a pact that if something happened to her first that we would talk to the police about the accused and what he did to us”.
The complainant said that she loved the accused’s wife who took them into her care after their parents died.
The woman told the jury her father died when she was three and her mother died when she was four and holding back tears she said “by the time I was four I had lost both parents”.
The two sisters eventually came under the care of the accused’s late wife.
The accused and his wife married in the early 1970s and the two sisters moved into their home in east Clare.
Asked by State counsel, Sarah Jane Comerford BL (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) her state of mind before being indecently assaulted by the accused, the woman said: “I was very happy – he always said that we were going to be a family and that is what I was craving since I lost my Mum and Dad so young”.
She said: “I was very vulnerable – I just wanted to be loved.”
She recalled the two of them travelling in the accused man’s vehicle on a Summer’s day and singing Waltzing Matilda before the accused asked her to remove her knickers and then he then indecently assaulted her.
The alleged abuse stopped in early 1975 when the two moved to Canada to live with relatives.
The older girl moved back across the Atlantic to live with her grandparents and they did not meet again until 1987.
The younger sister told the jury that when they met again in 1987 her older sister “brought up that the accused had abused her too and it just killed me”
She wept in the witness box when she said: “I didn’t know anything. I thought it was just me.”
Asked did she know the details concerning the alleged indecent assaults on her older sister, she replied: “I didn’t know what happened to her until yesterday.”
In evidence, the older sister told a jury that she would get into the bed in the morning with the accused man and his wife as a young girl “for hugs and cuddles – that I was not alone in the world” but ended up being indecently assaulted by the man.
The woman said that the accused “wouldn’t let up” and it occurred on a regular basis.
The woman told the jury of her upset when her younger sister told her that she had also been abused in 1987.
She said: “I was her big sister and I wasn’t there to defend her.”
The trial continues on Friday.
